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Chapter ThreeThe ApostasyAn Era of Spiritual Darkness

The apostle Paul, in his second letter to the
Thessalonians, foretold the great apostasy which would result
in the establishment of the papal power. He declared that
the day of Christ should not come, “except there come a falling
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of
perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that
is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth
in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” And
furthermore, the apostle warns his brethren that “the mystery
of iniquity doth already work.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4, 7.
Even at that early date he saw, creeping into the church,
errors that would prepare the way for the development of
the papacy.
Little by little, at first in stealth and silence, and then more
openly as it increased in strength and gained control of the
minds of men, “the mystery of iniquity” carried forward its
deceptive and blasphemous work. Almost imperceptibly the
customs of heathenism found their way into the Christian
church. The spirit of compromise and conformity was restrained
for a time by the fierce persecutions which the
church endured under paganism. But as persecution ceased,
and Christianity entered the courts and palaces of kings, she
laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and His apostles
for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers; and in
place of the requirements of God, she substituted human
theories and traditions. The nominal conversion of Constantine,
in the early part of the fourth century, caused great
rejoicing; and the world, cloaked with a form of righteousness,
walked into the church. Now the work of corruption
rapidly progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished,
became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the
church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were
incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed
followers of Christ.
This compromise between paganism and Christianity
resulted in the development of “the man of sin” foretold in
prophecy as opposing and exalting himself above God. That
gigantic system of false religion is a masterpiece of Satan’s
power—a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the
throne to rule the earth according to his will.
Satan once endeavored to form a compromise with Christ.
He came to the Son of God in the wilderness of temptation,
and showing Him all the kingdoms of the world and the
glory of them, offered to give all into His hands if He would
but acknowledge the supremacy of the prince of darkness.
Christ rebuked the presumptuous tempter and forced him
to depart. But Satan meets with greater success in presenting
the same temptations to man. To secure worldly gains and
honors, the church was led to seek the favor and support of
the great men of earth; and having thus rejected Christ, she
was induced to yield allegiance to the representative of Satan
—the bishop of Rome.
It is one of the leading doctrines of Romanism that the
pope is the visible head of the universal church of Christ,
invested with supreme authority over bishops and pastors in
all parts of the world. More than this, the pope has been
given the very titles of Deity. He has been styled “Lord God
the Pope” (see Appendix), and has been declared infallible.
He demands the homage of all men. The same claim urged
by Satan in the wilderness of temptation is still urged by him
through the Church of Rome, and vast numbers are ready
to yield him homage.
But those who fear and reverence God meet this heaven-daring
assumption as Christ met the solicitations of the wily
foe: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only
shalt thou serve.”
Luke 4:8. God has never given a hint in
His word that He has appointed any man to be the head of
the church. The doctrine of papal supremacy is directly
opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures. The pope can have
no power over Christ’s church except by usurpation.
Romanists have persisted in bringing against Protestants
the charge of heresy and willful separation from the true
church. But these accusations apply rather to themselves.
They are the ones who laid down the banner of Christ and
departed from “the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints.”
Jude 3.
Satan well knew that the Holy Scriptures would enable
men to discern his deceptions and withstand his power. It
was by the word that even the Saviour of the world had
resisted his attacks. At every assault, Christ presented the
shield of eternal truth, saying, “It is written.” To every
suggestion of the adversary, He opposed the wisdom and power
of the word. In order for Satan to maintain his sway over
men, and establish the authority of the papal usurper, he
must keep them in ignorance of the Scriptures. The Bible
would exalt God and place finite men in their true position;
therefore its sacred truths must be concealed and suppressed.
This logic was adopted by the Roman Church. For hundreds
of years the circulation of the Bible was prohibited. The
people were forbidden to read it or to have it in their houses,
and unprincipled priests and prelates interpreted its teachings
to sustain their pretensions. Thus the pope came to be almost
universally acknowledged as the vicegerent of God on earth,
endowed with authority over church and state.
The detector of error having been removed, Satan worked
according to his will. Prophecy had declared that the papacy
was to “think to change times and laws.”
Daniel 7:25. This
work it was not slow to attempt. To afford converts from
heathenism a substitute for the worship of idols, and thus to
promote their nominal acceptance of Christianity, the adoration
of images and relics was gradually introduced into the
Christian worship. The decree of a general council (see
Appendix
) finally established this system of idolatry. To
complete the sacrilegious work, Rome presumed to expunge
from the law of God the second commandment, forbidding
image worship, and to divide the tenth commandment, in
order to preserve the number.
The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for
a still further disregard of Heaven’s authority. Satan, working
through unconsecrated leaders of the church, tampered
with the fourth commandment also, and essayed to set aside
the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and
sanctified (Genesis 2:2, 3), and in its stead to exalt the festival
observed by the heathen as “the venerable day of the sun.”
This change was not at first attempted openly. In the first
centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians.
They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that
His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness
of its precepts. But with great subtlety Satan worked through
his agents to bring about his object. That the attention of the
people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a festival
in honor of the resurrection of Christ. Religious services
were held upon it; yet it was regarded as a day of recreation,
the Sabbath being still sacredly observed.
To prepare the way for the work which he designed to
accomplish, Satan had led the Jews, before the advent of
Christ, to load down the Sabbath with the most rigorous
exactions, making its observance a burden. Now, taking
advantage of the false light in which he had thus caused it
to be regarded, he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish institution.
While Christians generally continued to observe the
Sunday as a joyous festival, he led them, in order to show
their hatred of Judaism, to make the Sabbath a fast, a day of
sadness and gloom.
In the early part of the fourth century the emperor
Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a public festival
throughout the Roman Empire. (See
Appendix
.) The day
of the sun was reverenced by his pagan subjects and was
honored by Christians; it was the emperor’s policy to unite
the conflicting interests of heathenism and Christianity. He
was urged to do this by the bishops of the church, who,
inspired by ambition and thirst for power, perceived that if
the same day was observed by both Christians and heathen,
it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by
pagans and thus advance the power and glory of the church.
But while many God-fearing Christians were gradually led
to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness, they
still held the true Sabbath as the holy of the Lord and
observed it in obedience to the fourth commandment.
The archdeceiver had not completed his work. He was
resolved to gather the Christian world under his banner and
to exercise his power through his vicegerent, the proud
pontiff who claimed to be the representative of Christ. Through
half-converted pagans, ambitious prelates, and world-loving
churchmen he accomplished his purpose. Vast councils were
held from time to time, in which the dignitaries of the
church were convened from all the world. In nearly every
council the Sabbath which God had instituted was pressed
down a little lower, while the Sunday was correspondingly
exalted. Thus the pagan festival came finally to be honored
as a divine institution, while the Bible Sabbath was
pronounced a relic of Judaism, and its observers were declared
to be accursed.
The great apostate had succeeded in exalting himself
“above all that is called God, or that is worshiped.”
2
Thessalonians 2:4. He had dared to change the only precept of the
divine law that unmistakably points all mankind to the true
and living God. In the fourth commandment, God is
revealed as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and is
thereby distinguished from all false gods. It was as a
memorial of the work of creation that the seventh day was
sanctified as a rest day for man. It was designed to keep the
living God ever before the minds of men as the source of
being and the object of reverence and worship. Satan strives
to turn men from their allegiance to God, and from rendering
obedience to His law; therefore he directs his efforts
especially against that commandment which points to God
as the Creator.
Protestants now urge that the resurrection of Christ on
Sunday made it the Christian Sabbath. But Scripture
evidence is lacking. No such honor was given to the day by
Christ or His apostles. The observance of Sunday as a Christian
institution had its origin in that “mystery of lawlessness”
(2 Thessalonians 2:7, R.V.) which, even in Paul’s day, had
begun its work. Where and when did the Lord adopt this
child of the papacy? What valid reason can be given for a
change which the Scriptures do not sanction?
In the sixth century the papacy had become firmly
established. Its seat of power was fixed in the imperial city, and
the bishop of Rome was declared to be the head over the
entire church. Paganism had given place to the papacy. The
dragon had given to the beast “his power, and his seat, and
great authority.”
Revelation 13:2. And now began the 1260
years of papal oppression foretold in the prophecies of Daniel
and the Revelation.
Daniel 7:25;
Revelation 13:5-7. (See
Appendix
.) Christians were forced to choose either to yield
their integrity and accept the papal ceremonies and worship,
or to wear away their lives in dungeons or suffer death by
the rack, the fagot, or the headsman’s ax. Now were fulfilled
the words of Jesus: “Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and
brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall
they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of
all men for My name’s sake.”
Luke 21:16, 17. Persecution
opened upon the faithful with greater fury than ever before,
and the world became a vast battlefield. For hundreds of
years the church of Christ found refuge in seclusion and
obscurity. Thus says the prophet: “The woman fled into the
wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they
should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score
days.”
Revelation 12:6.
The accession of the Roman Church to power marked
the beginning of the Dark Ages. As her power increased, the
darkness deepened. Faith was transferred from Christ, the
true foundation, to the pope of Rome. Instead of trusting in
the Son of God for forgiveness of sins and for eternal salvation,
the people looked to the pope, and to the priests and
prelates to whom he delegated authority. They were taught
that the pope was their earthly mediator and that none could
approach God except through him; and, further, that he
stood in the place of God to them and was therefore to be
implicitly obeyed. A deviation from his requirements was
sufficient cause for the severest punishment to be visited upon
the bodies and souls of the offenders. Thus the minds of the
people were turned away from God to fallible, erring, and
cruel men, nay, more, to the prince of darkness himself, who
exercised his power through them. Sin was disguised in a
garb of sanctity. When the Scriptures are suppressed, and
man comes to regard himself as supreme, we need look only
for fraud, deception, and debasing iniquity. With the
elevation of human laws and traditions was manifest the
corruption that ever results from setting aside the law of God.
Those were days of peril for the church of Christ. The
faithful standard-bearers were few indeed. Though the truth
was not left without witnesses, yet at times it seemed that
error and superstition would wholly prevail, and true religion
would be banished from the earth. The gospel was lost
sight of, but the forms of religion were multiplied, and the
people were burdened with rigorous exactions.
They were taught not only to look to the pope as their
mediator, but to trust to works of their own to atone for sin.
Long pilgrimages, acts of penance, the worship of relics, the
erection of churches, shrines, and altars, the payment of large
sums to the church—these and many similar acts were
enjoined to appease the wrath of God or to secure His favor;
as if God were like men, to be angered at trifles, or pacified
by gifts or acts of penance!
Notwithstanding that vice prevailed, even among the
leaders of the Roman Church, her influence seemed steadily
to increase. About the close of the eighth century, papists put
forth the claim that in the first ages of the church the bishops
of Rome had possessed the same spiritual power which they
now assumed. To establish this claim, some means must be
employed to give it a show of authority; and this was readily
suggested by the father of lies. Ancient writings were forged
by monks. Decrees of councils before unheard of were
discovered, establishing the universal supremacy of the pope
from the earliest times. And a church that had rejected the
truth greedily accepted these deceptions. (See
Appendix
.)
The few faithful builders upon the true foundation. (1
Corinthians 3:10, 11) were perplexed and hindered as the
rubbish of false doctrine obstructed the work. Like the builders
upon the wall of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day, some were
ready to say: “The strength of the bearers of burdens is
decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not
able to build.”
Nehemiah 4:10. Wearied with the constant
struggle against persecution, fraud, iniquity, and every other
obstacle that Satan could devise to hinder their progress,
some who had been faithful builders became disheartened;
and for the sake of peace and security for their property
and their lives, they turned away from the true foundation.
Others, undaunted by the opposition of their enemies,
fearlessly declared: “Be not ye afraid of them: remember the
Lord, which is great and terrible” (verse 14); and they
proceeded with the work, everyone with his sword girded by
his side.
Ephesians 6:17.
The same spirit of hatred and opposition to the truth
has inspired the enemies of God in every age, and the same
vigilance and fidelity have been required in His servants.
The words of Christ to the first disciples are applicable to His
followers to the close of time: “What I say unto you I say
unto all, Watch.”
Mark 13:37.
The darkness seemed to grow more dense. Image worship
became more general. Candles were burned before images,
and prayers were offered to them. The most absurd and
superstitious customs prevailed. The minds of men were
so completely controlled by superstition that reason itself
seemed to have lost its sway. While priests and bishops were
themselves pleasure-loving, sensual, and corrupt, it could
only be expected that the people who looked to them for
guidance would be sunken in ignorance and vice.
Another step in papal assumption was taken, when, in the
eleventh century, Pope Gregory VII proclaimed the perfection
of the Roman Church. Among the propositions which
he put forth was one declaring that the church had never
erred, nor would it ever err, according to the Scriptures. But
the Scripture proofs did not accompany the assertion. The
proud pontiff also claimed the power to depose emperors,
and declared that no sentence which he pronounced could be
reversed by anyone, but that it was his prerogative to reverse
the decisions of all others. (See
Appendix
.)
A striking illustration of the tyrannical character of this
advocate of infallibility was given in his treatment of the
German emperor, Henry IV. For presuming to disregard
the pope’s authority, this monarch was declared to be
excommunicated and dethroned. Terrified by the desertion
and threats of his own princes, who were encouraged in
rebellion against him by the papal mandate, Henry felt the
necessity of making his peace with Rome. In company with
his wife and a faithful servant he crossed the Alps in
midwinter, that he might humble himself before the pope. Upon
reaching the castle whither Gregory had withdrawn, he was
conducted, without his guards, into an outer court, and there,
in the severe cold of winter, with uncovered head and naked
feet, and in a miserable dress, he awaited the pope’s permission
to come into his presence. Not until he had continued
three days fasting and making confession, did the pontiff
condescend to grant him pardon. Even then it was only
upon condition that the emperor should await the sanction
of the pope before resuming the insignia or exercising the
power of royalty. And Gregory, elated with his triumph,
boasted that it was his duty to pull down the pride of kings.
How striking the contrast between the overbearing pride
of this haughty pontiff and the meekness and gentleness of
Christ, who represents Himself as pleading at the door of
the heart for admittance, that He may come in to bring pardon
and peace, and who taught His disciples: “Whosoever
will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”
Matthew
20:27.
The advancing centuries witnessed a constant increase of
error in the doctrines put forth from Rome. Even before the
establishment of the papacy the teachings of heathen philosophers
had received attention and exerted an influence in the
church. Many who professed conversion still clung to the
tenets of their pagan philosophy, and not only continued its
study themselves, but urged it upon others as a means of
extending their influence among the heathen. Serious errors
were thus introduced into the Christian faith. Prominent
among these was the belief in man’s natural immortality and
his consciousness in death. This doctrine laid the foundation
upon which Rome established the invocation of saints and
the adoration of the Virgin Mary. From this sprang also the
heresy of eternal torment for the finally impenitent, which
was early incorporated into the papal faith.
Then the way was prepared for the introduction of still
another invention of paganism, which Rome named purgatory,
and employed to terrify the credulous and superstitious
multitudes. By this heresy is affirmed the existence of a place
of torment, in which the souls of such as have not merited
eternal damnation are to suffer punishment for their sins,
and from which, when freed from impurity, they are
admitted to heaven. (See
Appendix
.)
Still another fabrication was needed to enable Rome to
profit by the fears and the vices of her adherents. This was
supplied by the doctrine of indulgences. Full remission of
sins, past, present, and future, and release from all the pains
and penalties incurred, were promised to all who would
enlist in the pontiff’s wars to extend his temporal dominion,
to punish his enemies, or to exterminate those who dared
deny his spiritual supremacy. The people were also taught
that by the payment of money to the church they might free
themselves from sin, and also release the souls of their
deceased friends who were confined in the tormenting flames.
By such means did Rome fill her coffers and sustain the
magnificence, luxury, and vice of the pretended representatives of
Him who had not where to lay His head. (See
Appendix
.)
The Scriptural ordinance of the Lord’s Supper had been
supplanted by the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass. Papal
priests pretended, by their senseless mummery, to convert the
simple bread and wine into the actual “body and blood of
Christ.” —Cardinal Wiseman, The Real Presence of the Body
and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist,
Proved From Scripture, lecture 8, sec. 3, par. 26. With
blasphemous presumption, they openly claimed the power of
creating God, the Creator of all things. Christians were
required, on pain of death, to avow their faith in this
horrible, Heaven-insulting heresy. Multitudes who refused were
given to the flames. (See
Appendix
.)
In the thirteenth century was established that most terrible
of all the engines of the papacy—the Inquisition. The prince
of darkness wrought with the leaders of the papal hierarchy.
In their secret councils Satan and his angels controlled the
minds of evil men, while unseen in the midst stood an angel
of God, taking the fearful record of their iniquitous decrees
and writing the history of deeds too horrible to appear to
human eyes. “Babylon the great” was “drunken with the
blood of the saints.” The mangled forms of millions of
martyrs cried to God for vengeance upon that apostate power.
Popery had become the world’s despot. Kings and
emperors bowed to the decrees of the Roman pontiff. The
destinies of men, both for time and for eternity, seemed
under his control. For hundreds of years the doctrines of
Rome had been extensively and implicitly received, its rites
reverently performed, its festivals generally observed. Its
clergy were honored and liberally sustained. Never since has
the Roman Church attained to greater dignity, magnificence,
or power.
But “the noon of the papacy was the midnight of the
world.” —J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, b. 1,
ch. 4. The Holy Scriptures were almost unknown, not only
to the people, but to the priests. Like the Pharisees of old, the
papal leaders hated the light which would reveal their sins.
God’s law, the standard of righteousness, having been
removed, they exercised power without limit, and practiced
vice without restraint. Fraud, avarice, and profligacy
prevailed. Men shrank from no crime by which they could gain
wealth or position. The palaces of popes and prelates were
scenes of the vilest debauchery. Some of the reigning pontiffs
were guilty of crimes so revolting that secular rulers
endeavored to depose these dignitaries of the church as
monsters too vile to be tolerated. For centuries Europe had made
no progress in learning, arts, or civilization. A moral and
intellectual paralysis had fallen upon Christendom.
The condition of the world under the Romish power
presented a fearful and striking fulfillment of the words of
the prophet Hosea: “My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also
reject thee: . . . seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy
God, I will also forget thy children.” “There is no truth, nor
mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and
lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery,
they break out, and blood toucheth blood.”
Hosea 4:6, 1, 2.
Such were the results of banishing the word of God.